speecH4-^;%..:  . 


• ••  • 

• • • , 


• • 


OF 


HON.  A.  W.  TERRELL, 


DELIVERED  IN  THE 


SENATE-  OF  TEXAS, 


JANUARY  21,  1884,. 


ON  SENATE  BILL  No.  2,  ENTITLED  “AN  ACT  TO  REOULATE  THE 
GRAZING  OF  STOCK  IN  TEXAS,  AND  TO  PRESCRIBE  AND 
PROVIDE  PENALTIES  FOR  ITS  VIOLATION.” 


REPORTED  BY  THOS.  H.  WHELESS. 


AUSTIN: 

E.  W.  SWINDELLS,  STATE  PRINTER. 
1884. 


3 


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T 1 "/  7.V 


I 


I 


mcvYood. 


SPEECH 


OF 


HON.  A.  W.  TERRELL. 


The  Senate  being  in  Committee  of  the  Whole  on  Senate  Bill  No.  2,  entitled 
“ An  act  to  regulate  the  grazing  of  stock  in  Texas,  and  to  prescribe  and  pro- 
vide for  enforcing  penalties  for  its  violation,” 

Senator  Terrell  said  : Mr.  Chairman:  I do  not  know  when  I have  felt  more 
touched  than  I was  ten  minutes  ago,  when  the  distinguished  divine,  who  officiated 
in  the  place  of  our  Chaplain,  prayed  that  we  might  be  inspired  with  that  dignity 
and  modesty  which  become  the  law-givers  of  a great  people.  I say,  sir,  I do  not 
know  when  I have  been  more  touched,  in  view  of  the  scenes  of  the  last  few  days, 
which  remind  me  of  nothing  so  much  in  man’s  history,  as  the  fiddling  of  a Eoman 
Emperor  when  Rome  was  burning.  I cannot  respond  in  the  spirit  of  badinage 
which  has  inspired  this  discussion,  and  which  has  characterzied  the  members  of  the 
opposition.  With  a'defective  voice  and  an  aching  head,  I shall  have  enough  to  do 
to  address  myself  to  the  question,  without  attempting  to  tickle  the  ear  of  the 
groundlings  by  anecdote,  or  gratify  myself  by  just  retaliation  on  those  who  should 
know  their  duty,  but  are  constrained  by  the  madness  of  the  hour  to  evade  it. 

And  first,  sir,  before  discussing  this  bill,  let  me,  in  all  fairness,  get  those  who 
have  been  unable  to  understand  my  position,  although  I labored  two  long  hours  to 
make  it  understood,  with  simple,  plain  language,  I say,  let  me  get  them  out  of  the 
fog,  that  they  may  understand  who  it  is  that  is  impaled  on  the  barbed  wire  fence. 
First,  I am  for  removing  provoking  causes  for  lawlessness,  and  putting  those  who 
, are  wrong  doers  in  the  penitentiary,  if  that  be  necessary  to  stop  provocations. 
The  man  who  encloses  the  land  of  his  neighbor  without  his  consent,  and  will  not 
turn  it  loose,  unless  he  conforms  to  the  principles  of  the  bill  for  fencing  it  up,  put 
him  in  the  penitentiary.  Does  this  make  me  the  champion  for  pasture  .men  ? 

If  he  will  not  give  a road  out  of  his  pasture,  if  another  owner  occupies  the  interior 
land,  put  him  in  the  penitentiary.  Is  that  acting  in  the  special  interest  of  the  big 
pasture  man? 

If,  having  a pasture  in  which  he  can  keep  his  stock,  he  does  not  conform  to  the 
principles  of  the  bill  for  the  use  of  outside  grass,  when  he  turns  then  out,  put 
him  in  the  penitentiary.  Is  that  acting  in  the  special  interest  of  the  big  pasture 
man? 

On  the  other  hand,  if  the  man,  from  innate  meanness  or  from  perverted  judgment, 
goaded,  it  may  be,  by  what  he  conceives  the  grievances  that  have  been  inflicted 


p 2-C  I 0 


4 


Speech  of  Senator  Terrell. 


upon  him,  haa,  Vifij^r<rn  the  \night-time  or  day-time,  clipped  the  wires  or  des- 
troyed the  f^nce'ohahopii^r/TvUetlier  all  the  l?.nd  inside  belong  to  the  owner  of  the 
fence  pr/iipt,  di/ls  not,f(Sr'hlhi  to  become  the  executioner  of  the  law  in  Texas,  and  I 
would, 'pu^ 'him, iR'  llje  penitenUary. 

Well,' it  ,wdul'db8em,t.h4t'|*^4ave  left  myself  without  a party.  Not  so,  sir;  it  is 
the  pafty'pli.the  fujt.ure';''t6e'  party  of  law  and  order  in  this  country,  which  will 
maintain  |;h\3  m/ij^^t'/*6f'lhe  law  against  all  wrong  doers;  the  party  of  right  and  of 
constitationaJl'gp'j/.ei'hment,  on  which  I depend  with  faith  as  firm  as  a rock  when  the 
madness  of  tl'ps  hour  has  past. 

The  broad  range  which  the  discussion  of  this  bill  has  taken  requires  me  to  invite 
you  back  to  the  bill  itself,  after  we  first  examine  the  evils  that  demand  its 
passage.  Its  doctrine  cannot  be  destroyed  by  ridicule  or  anecdote,  for  those  are 
seldom  resorted  to  by  a statesman,  except  when  he  lacks  argument.  The  situation 
is  too  grave  for  merriment  except  to  those  who,  like  Nero,  would  fiddle  while  the 
city  is  burning.  The  wide-spread  destruction  of  property  by  organized  bodies  of  the 
people  indicates  the  existence  of  grievances  which,  though  they  can  never  excuse 
lawlessness,  demand  the  care  of  the  law-maker.  Communism,  rank  and  dangerous, 
is  abroad  among  the  people.  The  pernicious  teachings  of  Mr.  George,  that  land  and 
water,  like  air,  are  free,  and  that  no  man  has  a right  to  more  of  either  than  his  per- 
sonal needs  require,  have  taken  root,  and  must  be  eradicated,  or  civilization  is  at  an 
end.  On  the  other  hand,  deluded  people,  instead  of  waiting  for  the  peaceful 
methods  of  law  to  redress  grievances,  have  made  a law  unto  themselves,  and  life 
and  property  are  rendered  insecure,  and  being  destroyed  by  their  frenzy.  This 
spirit  must  be  curbed  and  means  provided  for  punishing  men  who  thus  act,  or 
government  has  failed  in  its  mission.  The  man  who  wilfully  combines  with  others 
to  destroy  private  property  is  an  assassin  of  liberty;  for  liberty  with  us  is  only  such 
when  regulated  by  law,  and  there  is  no  despotism  so  fearful  as  that  of  lawless 
majorities. 

But,  sir,  there  are  grievances  terrible  to  contemplate  now  provoking  the  people, 
and  I have  sought  in  one  bill  to  remedy  some  of  those  evils  and  at  the  same  time  pro- 
vide a punishment  for  fence  destruction.  I would  in  the  same  bill  punish  the  man 
who  provokes  to  fence  cutting  and  the  fence-cutter  himself,  and  send  them  to  keep 
each  other  company  in  the  penitentiary.  1 champion  the  cause  of  neither,  but  say  to 
both,  in  destroying  property  values  you  array  yourselves  against  civilization,  and  I 
would  treat  you  as  its  enemy. 

FIRST  CAUSES  FOR  FENCE  CUTTINO. 

Before  considering  the  bill,  1 will  again  review  the  mischief  of  the  hour.  There 
were  at  first  ^eep-seated  causes  for  this  lawlessness  which  free-grass  Senators 
will  not  discuss.  I mention— 

1.  The  rapid  increase  of  a poor  population,  which  has  come  to  Texas  more  rapidly 
than  we  have  been  able  to  provide  for  and  assimilate  them. 

2.  The  rapidity  with  which  partial  laws  have  enabled  a favored  class  of  stock 
men  to  grow  rich  on  the  lands  of  other  people,  and  on  school  lands  held  in  trust  for 
our  children,  and  the  jealousy  which  always  follows  riches  quickly  obtained. 

3.  The  construction  of  vast  pastures,  which  resulted  in  tiirowing  the  reckless 
herdsmen  out  of  employment. 

4.  The  avarice  of  pasture  men,  who  devour  in  summer  the  grass  around  the 
humble  homes  of  the  small  farmer  in  order  that  they  may  have  good  winter  grass  in 
their  pastures. 

5.  The  absence  of  proper  road  laws. 

6.  The  enclosing  of  vast  properties  by  landed  corporations  composed  of  men  out- 


Speech  of  Senator  Terrell. 


5 


side  of  Texas,  who  swicg  the  anaconda  coil  of  their  wires  around  school  land  and 
individual  lands  alike. 

7.  Large  herds  owned  by  corporations  and  individuals  who  own  no  land,  and 
which  are  driven  to  peaceful  neighborhoods  to  consume  the  grass,  or  depredate  alike 
on  the  school  land  and  that  of  private  citizens. 

8.  The  fencing  up  of  water  holes  in  prairie  wastes,  fraudulently  leased  as  being 
on  dry  sections  of  land. 

9.  Enclosing  the  school  lands  and  private  property  in  large  pastures,  to  the  exclu- 
sion of  the  owner  and  others. 

These  are  among  the  prominent  evils  of  the  hour;  and  the  bill  look>  to  the  cor- 
rection of  each  and  every  one,  except  the  defective  road  law,  which  must  be 
corrected  by  another  act. 

EXTENT  OF  SCHOOL  LAND. 

We  have  about  thirty  millions  of  acres  of  school  land,  nearly  all  of  it  in  the  Pan- 
handle, lying  north  of  the  thirty-first  parallel  of  latitude,  and  west  of  the  ninety- 
ninth  degree  of  longitude,  in  fifty  four  unorganized  counties.  Every  section  of  that 
school  land  has  been  surveyed.  The  public  domain  is  all  gone,  and  what  was  once 
public  land  now  belongs  to  private  parties,  to  corporations  and  to  the  children  of 
Texas.  These  school  lands  are  a sacred  trust,  held  by  the  Legislature  under  the  Con- 
stitution for  the  education  of  our  youth,  forever.  Over  all  that  domain  in  those  fifty- 
four  unorganized  counties  vast  herds  of  cattle  are  grazing  on  mesquite  grass,  win- 
ter and  summer,  enriching  a favored  class  in  this  country  who  enjoy  that  range 
free  of  charge. 

These  school  lands,  leased  at  four  cents  per  acre,  would  yield  a revenue  for  free 
schools  of  twelve  hundred  thousand  dollars  slj ear  \ enough,  with  other  funds  on  hand, 
to  school  every  child  in  Texas,  white  and  black,  eight  month  in  the  year,  without 
taxing  the  producing  classes  one  dollar.  Corporations  speculating  in  land,  the 
great  source  of  life,  many  of  whose  stockholders  live  in  Scotland,  France  and 
England,  rule  with  the  sway  of  ; lords  that  vast  domain ; gatherieg  wealth  without 
labor  and  without  price,  while  we,  the  trustees  of  a territory  for  children  yet  un. 
born,  stand  idly  by.  Was  I notright  when  I said  only  yesterday,  that  Texas,  in 
turning  over  that  country  to  the  common  use  of  cattle  speculators,  jhad  made 
herself  the  champion  communist  of  this  continent?  How  can  she  punish  the  fence 
cutter  for  coveting  his  neighbor’s  grass,  so  long  as  she  encourages  communism 
by  refusing  to  punish  corporations  and  individuals  for  trespassing  on  the  pasturage 
owned  by  the  children  of  this  State? 

The  authority  of  law  is  never  felt  in  that  Panhandle  country,  whiclv  with  unor- 
ganized counties  southwest  of  it,  covers  a territory  larger  than  New  York.  One 
corporation  encloses  seven  hundred  thousand  acres,  covering  nearly  three  counties, 
and  its  five  hundred  stockholders  are  scattered  in  every  city  from  St.  Louis 
to  Paris. 


CONDITION  OF  PANHANDLE  COUNTRY. 

Go  with  me  into  that  Panhandle  country  and  explore  its  mysteries.  There  you 
will  find  a wire  fence  said  to  be  one  hundred  and  twenty  miles  long,  running  east 
and  west,  crossing  school  lands  and  the  land  -if  private  parties.  It  is  a straight 
fence  to  catch  drift  cattle  and  connects  with  no  other.  North  of  it,  men  who  own 
grass  and  those  who  own  none,  have  divided  of!  lor  their  use  the  territory  of  Texas; 
and  woe  to  the  unlucky  stranger  who  drives  his  herds  to  share  with  them  the  grass. 
Streams  and  dividing  ridges  form  the  arbitrar}^  boundaries  of  their  usurped  domin- 
ion. Lines  of  side-riders  pass  every  day  from  north  to  south,  and  fence_and  keep  the 


6 


Speech  of  Senator  Terrell. 


stock  of  each  lord  on  the  territory  claimed  by  him.  Vast  pastures,  without  regard 
to  ownership  of  land,  now  enclose  counties.  Passing  from  Mobetee  to  Tascosa,  130 
miles,  you  are  only  out  of  a pasture  for  twenty-three  miles  of  the  distance 
The  Kerr  Land  and  Cattle  company  is  said  to  have  70,000  head  of  cattle  in  a 
pasture,  across  which  is  a day’s  journey.  The  Franklin  Land  and  Cattle  company 
is  reputed  to  kave  over  70,000  head  in  Gray  and  Hutchinson  counties,  while  the 
Matidor  Cattle  company  dominates  with  stock  men  and  cattle  the  territory  of 
Crosb}',  Dickens  and  perhaps  Moiley>counties.  One  firm  alone,  which  purchased  over 
twenty  thousand  head  from  tlie  Millett  Bros.,  and  which  is  said  to  own  two  millions 
of  dollars  worth  of  cattle,  has  hardly  enough  land  in  Texas  for  their  vast  herds  to  be 
penned  on.  Fre»range  men,  who  neither  own  nor  lease  land,  occupy  most  of  the  land 
from  the  Sand  Hills  to  the  north,  and  from  Red  River  to  the  Rio  Grande,  along  the 
border,  except  that  fenced  in  those  immense  pastures.  Roaming  over  unorganized 
counties  and  along  the  border,  from  one  water  bole  to  another,  they  trample  under 
their  hoofs  the  grass  around  the  humble  home  of  the  pioneer  nester;  and  thus,  away 
from  law,  where  powder  measuies  right,  there  is  no  redress. 

When  is  this  madness  to  cease  ? and  does  not  this  w holesale  use  of  school  lands 
by  associated  capital,  and  its  purchase  by  indirect  agencies,  call  as  loudly  for  an  exe- 
cutive recommendation  to  correct  it,  as  the  evil  of  the  statute  not  giving  a lieu  on 
an  animal  that  goes  into  another  man’s  pasture,  wdiich  his  Excellency  thinks  we 
should  correct? 

Be  patient,  Senators;  I am  doing  a sum  for  the  farmers  of  this  State,  and  if  that 
stenographer  will  report  my  words,  I will  send  it  through  the  land.  I am  showing 
the  evils  that  threaten  social  order  before  I answmr  your  objections  to  my  remedy. 
In  one  county,  three  months  ago,  there  was  a pasture  of  two  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  acres,  built  ou  a cordon  of  sections  owned  by  the  pasture  men.  The 
fence  w^as  all  on  their  land;  but  inside  of  that  pasture  there  were  over  fifty 
thousand  acres  of  land  wdiich  be’onged  to  private  parties  and  to  the  school 
fund,  not  an  acre  of  which  was  rented  to  them.  Near  that  pasture  ruus  a stream 
of  living  water,  up  wiiich  the  hardy  emigrants  had  pushed  their  way,  and  built 
their  nests.  From  that  pasture  herds  of  cattle  poured  out  during  the  summer  to 
consume  the  grass  around  the  humble  homes,  and  tread  to  mortar  the  prairie  where 
verdure  grew,  only  to  return  to  fine  range,  on  the  inside,  during  winter.  Put  your- 
self in  the  ncster’s  place— unable  to  raise  a milk  cow  or  a beef  on  your  owm  land. 
You  look  over  into  the  pasture  of  your  neighbor  and  reflect  that  he  has  appropri- 
ated to  his  own  use  the  school  land  dedicated  to  jmur  child  as  well  as  his;  and 
w'ould  you  not  curse  in  bitterness  of  heart  the  partial  laws  that  gave  you  no 
remedy?  Wy  friend,  Senator  Henderson,  who  lost  an  arm  in  the  service  of  his 
countrj%  is  said  to  own  a section  of  land  inside  of  that  pasture,  w’hich  he  could 
neither  rent  nor  sell  to  the  usurpers. 

ROAMING  STOCKMEN, 

Aloug  the  border  counties  now'  organized,  skirtiog  the  Panhandle,  and  in  those 
below  the  sand  hills,  the  same  w'rong  and  oppression  is  found.  Wandering,  nomadic 
herdsmen  range  across  dividing  ridges  from  one  stream  to  another,  over  their  king- 
dom of  free  grass,  consuming  the  range  and  starving  the  home  stock  of  the  small 
farmer— men  wdio  owm  nothing  Imt  their  stock,  their  herd  horses,  and  side-arms. 
To  some  of  these  gentry,  the  wire  fence,  whether  around  the  farmer’s  pasture  or  a 
school  section,  is  especially  inconvenient;  and  among  them  are  found  warm  dis- 
ciples of  Mr,  George — men  wdio  believe  that  laud  ought  to  be  free,  and  w'bowfliisper 
into  the  car  of  the  nester  that  tlieir  pastures  alone  cause  all  the  trouble.  I/nless  this 
gentry  is  controlled  by  law,  unless  they  arc  made  to  cease  their  wandering  ways  and 


Speech  op  Senator  Terrell. 


7 


buy  or  lease  the  grass  on  which  they  feed,  there  is  no  peace  for  Texas.  The  fenced- 
in  water  hole  is  in  their  way,  and,  with  the  help  of  the  deluded  settler,  they  make  it  the 
special  object  of  their  devilment.  I see  a man  now  in  the  lobby  who  will  tell  you 
that  the  corporations  which  own  fat  herds  and  no  land  are  not  the  only  depredators, 
for  that,  within  one  hundred  miles  of  where  I now  stand,  there  are  scores  of  men 
who  own  from  500  to  5000  cattle,  who  hardly  own  or  lease  enough  land  on  which  to 
round  up  their  herds.  These  gentry  are  the  same  in  all  ages.  Since  the  days  when 
the  herdsmen  of  Gerar  strove  with  the  herdsmen  of  Isaac ‘at  the  well — since  the  days 
when  Jacob  swindled  his  father-in-law  Laban,  by  fixing  his  striped  rods,  the  wand- 
ering herdsman  has  been  gathering  by  craft  and  holding  with  the  strong  hand. 
Their  habits  are  wild  and  unrestrained,  and  the  custom  of  marking  a calf  without 
knowning  the  ownership  of  its  mother  will  never  improve  your  civilization.  I 
know  this  class  well,  and  for  thirty  years  I have  both  tried  and  defended  them. 
Faithful  in  friendship  and  vindictive  in  their  hate,  they  will  make  your  best  citizens 
when  you  once  stop  their  roaming.  Until  then  they  will  sometimes  practice  the 
strange  morality  of  seeing  no  wrong  in  desolating  the  range  around  the  settler’s 
door,  or  hanging  a horse-thief  and  branding  an  unknown  calf  as  (some  of  them 
have  done)  on  the  same  day.  As  long  as  they  are  let  alone  they  will  fix  bounda- 
ries on  free  range  between  themselves  in  the  Panhandle,  even  as  Laban  and  Jacob 
did,  and  watch  each  other  with  the  same  suspicion  that  this  same  Jacob  did  his 
brother  Esau,  when,  after  a long  absence,  h»  came  to  meet  him— with  four  hundred 
horsemen — sending  forward  his  presents  of  goats  and  cattle,  but  hiding  in  the  rear 
Rachel  and  her  tender-eyed  sister,  to  both  of  whom  he  had  taken  a fancy. 

FREE  GRASS  THE  GREAT  CAUSE. 

Sir,  free  grass  in  Texas  is  at  the  bottom  of  all  this  lawlessness;  against  it  this  bill 
opens  a war;  against  it,  I put  in  motion  a ball,  which,  whatever  this  Senate  may  do? 
will  roll  over  those  who  stand  in  its  way  next  November;  for  upon  its  progress 
depends,  not  only  the  advance,  but  the  existence  of  civilization  in  Texas. 

Look  at  your  condition.  Last  year  400, 000  cattle  were  under  contract  in  January 
for  the  northern  drive;  this  day  not  one  hoof  is  bought,  for  there  is  not  a bank  in  St. 
Louis,  Chicago  or  any  where  else,  that  will  advance  a dollar  to  a Texas  cattle  man. 
Your  banks  at  home  will  net  advance  for  beyond  90  days,  and  then  only  on  gilt- 
edge  collaterals,  while  your  landed  values  are  depreciating  twenty  millions  a month. 
Nobody  wants  your  land,  for  a commune  spirit  demands  that  it  shall  be  free — even 
when  you  fence  it.  The  whole  social  fabric  is  honey-combed  with  communism,  and 
nothing  but  a “heroic  remedy  ” will  cure  it;  no  wizard  oil  or  healing  plasters  will 
restore  confidence  or  protect  property  rights,  for  this  is  no  skin  disease;  the  sur- 
geon’s knife  must  go  the  hone,  for  the  hip  joint  is  affected,  and  the  State  has  ceased 
to  advance.  Free  grass,  and  the  devilment  that  it  breeds,  is  at  the  bottom  of  all  this 
trouble.  This  lobby  holds  its  free  grass  advocates,  who  say  one  thing  in  their  cattle 
convention  and  another  thing  up  here.  But  I see 

NO  PARMER  HERE, 

and  hear  nothing  of  their  conventions  in  Austin;  but  when  you  refuse  to  pass  my 
bill — when  you  increase  their  burdens  in  scliool  taxes  to  fatten  corporations  and 
wandering  herdsmen  on  school  lands,  you  will  hear  from  them  at  the  numbering  of 
the  tribes  in  November. 


WHO  SUPPORTS  THIS  STATE? 

In  1879  there  were  in  Texas  200,000  farmers  (I  leave  off  odd  figures);  of  agricultural 


8 


Speech  of  Senator  Terrell. 


laborers  there  vrere  143,000,  making  in  all,  of  those  who  till  the  earth,  343,000.  Of 
stockmen  and  herders  there  were  only  14,031,  or  about  twenty-two  farmers  for  one 
stockman. 


WHO  OWNS  THE  LAND? 

The  value  of  farms,  fencing  and  buildings  in  Texas  in  1879  w^as  $170,468,866. 
The  whole  land  values  of  the  State  was  $216,954,000— leaving  to  corporations,  pasture 
men  and  wild  land  owners  of  values  but  $46,468,060,  while  farmers  paid  taxes  on 
fixed  values  amounting  to  over  $170,000,000. 

WHO  OWNS  THE  STOCK? 

The  census  report  shows  that  the  value  of  farm  stock  in  1880  was  $60,307,000. 
The  Comptroller’s  report  shows  the  whole  value  of  cattle  in  the  State  in  1883  wai? 
$28,307,000.  So  the  cattle  values  of  our  farmers  who  had  to  sustain  their  stock 
without  school  land  grass  were  double  that  of  the  ranchmen. 

WHAT  MORE? 

The  value  oi  Texas  farm  products  was,  in  1879,  according  to  the  census,  $65,204,000 


We  raised  cotton  that  year  worth 67,758,000 

In  all $132,962,000 


Or,  in  other  words,  our  farmers  made  from  the  sweat  of  their  brows,  in  one 
year,  in  Texas  fields,  more  than  three  times  the  value  of  all  the  ranch  stock  in  the 


State. 

The  farmer  had  some  burdens. 

That  year  (1879)  he  spent  in  building  fences $ 3,676,603 

And  he  invested  in  agricultural  implements 9,000,000^ 

Total $12,676,603 


Vast  as  the  products  of  our  farmers  were,  the  farmer  and  farm  laborer  averaged 
in  wages  and  profits  but  tuenfy-jive  dollars  a month. 

[the  AREA  OF  AVAILABLE  PASTURAGE 

in  Texas  is  150,000,000  of  acres,  while  the  entire  land  area  of  the  State  is  167,735,- 
000  acres.  We  have  of  cattle,  mules  and  horses,  according  to  the  Comptroller’s 
report,  about  6,000,000,  or,  as  you  see,  about  tw’enty-one  acres  of  available  pastur 
age  to  the  head. 


FARMERS  TAXED  FOR  FREE  GRASS. 

Now,  sir,  these  343,000  farmers  labor  in  the  field  to  pay  over  a million  dollars  in 
taxes  to  educate  the  white  and  negro  children  in  Texas,  while  14,000  free-grass  stock 
men  are  enriched  without  paying  one  dollar  rent  for  the  30,000,000  acres  of  school 
land  on  which  they  graze.  Such  open  handed  plunder  of  farmers,  encouraged  and 
permitted  by  law,  has  never  been  witnessed  since  William  the  Conqueror  divided 
out  the  English  farms  among  the  Norman  barons.  That  school  land,  even  at 


Speech  of  Senator  Terrell. 


9 


four  cents  per  acre,  would  bring  $1,200,000  a year — enough  to  educate,  with 
other  available  funds,  without  taxation,  every  child  in  Texas.  I have  seen  the 
derisive  smile  when  Senator  Johnson,  sometimes  called  Rutabaga  Johnson,, 
the  only  farmer  among  us,  would  rise  in  his  place  and  warn  you  that  these 
school  lands  should  b«  made  to  yield  a rental  now^  that  the  farming  classes  might  be 
relieved.  Let  me  tell  you,  rude  of  speech  as  he  is,  in  all  that  pertains  to  patriotism, 
he  is  the  peer  of  any  of  you,  and  his  unheeded  warnings  will  yet  pester  us. 
You  tell  me  that  under  existing  law,  these  school  lands  will  be  leased ; but  how 
and  when  ? At  the  present  rate,  under  the  law,  it  would  take  about  sixty  years,  and 
your  land  board,  which  seems  to  make  law  instead  of  execute  it,  will  be  bound  to 
lease  to  the  best  bidder,  and  not  in  limited  quantities,  which  will  increase  the  evil  and 
place  those  lands,  if  ever  leased,  in  the  long  purses  of  land  corporations.  Mark  my 
prediction,  when  you  have  buried  my  bill,  you  will  pass  some  high  sounding 
measure  that  will  give  preference  in  leasing  to  the  man  who  already  has  a school 
section  in  his  pasture,  as  if  priority  in  theft  should  invest  him  with  superior  rights, 
and  you  will  putfthe  lands  to  the  highest  bidder  and  enable  concentrated  capital  to 
strangle  competition.  You  know  that  there  is  not  a constable  or  magistrate  in  the 
fifty -four  counties  of  the  Panhandle;  and  now,  mark  my  prediction : If  this  bill  is 
defeated  you  will  make  a penalty  for  grazing  on  school  lands,  and  refuse  to  create 
any  tribunals  to  enforce  your  law  in  that  vast  territory,  covered  all  over  with  cattle. 
Lay  not  the  flattering  urction  to  your  souls  that  this  dodge  of  the  free  grazer  will 
pass  muster,  or  that  ytur  policy  can  be  concealed. 

WHERE  FENCE  CUTTING  STARTED. 

Sir,  the  weather  prophet  when  he  foretells  a storm,  first  finds  out  from  his  signal- 
stations  where  the  atmospheric  pressure  is  greatest.  Let  us  imitate  his  example  and 
scan  the  political  horizon.  Close  along  the  edge  of  the  unorganized  counties,  north 
of  us,  this  fence  cutting  mischief  first  started,  for  there  the  pressure  was  greatest. 
The  farmer,  making  his  twenty-five  dollars  a month,  finds  the  range  around  his 
home  destroyed  by  the  wandering  stockmen,  who  owned  no  grass.  He  is  a nester,. 
but  his  little  nest  with  his  white-headed  babes  are  as  dear  to  him  as  yours  can  be  to 
you.  This  country  was  made  and  has  been  defended  by  these  same  nesters.  Look- 
ing across  the  bordei  into  the  Panhandle,  he  discovered  a new  race  of  men  springing 
up,  who  without  labor  were  enriching  themselves  on  unrented  land,  solemnly  dedica- 
ted to  educate  the  children  of  all.  Yes,  sir,  a new  breed  of  men  who  are  called 
Kings — caitle  lings.  I told  you  about  one  of  them  the  other  day. 

Mr.  Driskill,  of  my  town,  authorized  me  to  say  that,  eleven  years  ago  he  owned  800 
head  of  cattle,  and  now  is  worth  $800,000,  every  dollar  of  which  was  made  from 
cattle  raised  on  public  land,  and  that  he  never  was  even  called  on  to  pay  one  dol- 
lar of  taxes.  I told  you  that  he  was  a good  man,  and  not  to  be  blamed,  for  the  fault 
lay  at  our  doors.  Senator  Davis  wanted  to  know  why  he  did  not  give  some  of  it  to 
the  poor.  Well,  he  gives  by  rule,  just  $5,000  a year  to  the  poor;  more  money  than 
that  Senator  ever  made  in  one  year  by  his  practice  or  otherwise.  This  is  not 
all;  as  the  nester  looks  into  that  broad  waste  covered  with  mesquite  grass,  he  sees  the 
drift  fence  of  th3  Matidor  company,  a corporation  with  its  five  hundred  native  and 
foreign  stockholders,  and  knows  that  the  grass  that  should  educate  his  children  is 
enriching  men  in  foreign  lands,  while  he  must  labor  fortaxes  to  educate  the  children 
of  all.  He  sees,  under  the  operation  of  partial  laws,  a breed  of  pampered  speculators 
enrir  lied  by  the  State,  and  the  deep  gulf  between  th^  rich  and  poor  widening  and 
deepening  every  day.  No  tide  of  emigration  can  ever  invade  those  vast  possessions 
usurped  by  corporations  and  individuals;  for  the  stillness  of  death  is  upon  the  plains, 


10 


Speech  of  Senator  Terrell. 


broken  only  by  the  lowing  of  the  cattle,  and  all  the  land  is  partitioned  by  the  arbi- 
trary boundaries  set  up  by  these  modern  Labans  and  Jacobs.  No  fence  cutting  in  these 
plains,  for  these  kings  make  their  pastures  safe  by  the  free  riders  of  the  prairie, 
who  are  as  experts  with  the  pistol  as  with  the  lasso.  Sir,  this  picture  is  not  over- 
drawn, and  even  a fool  can  understand  how  a small  farmer,  goaded  by  his  surround- 
ings, finds  himself  working  at  the  nippers  by  the  side  of  the  free-grass  herdsman,  on 
the  wire  fence  around  the  pasture  of  some  rich  neighbor,  I have  no  excuse  for  him  . 
there  is  no  excuse  for  him  who  violates  law.  Along  the  line  of  the  organized  coun- 
ties of  the  border,  the  cloud  first  settled  that  threatened  us,  and  it  has  spread  uuti[ 
now,  the  deluded  farmer  is  striking  hands  with  the  heidsmen  over  half  the  State  in  ; 
destroying  property,  never  dreaming  that  he  is  applying  the  torch  to  the  very  frame- 
work of  society. 

PRESSURE  ON  THE  SENATE. 

Let  US  pause  a moment  to  see  also  where  tbe  pressure  that  threatens  to  strand  this 
bill  comes  from  in  the  Senate.  Cast  your  eye  along  the  edge  of  the  frontier  from  Red 
River  to  the  Rio  Grande,  and  you  will  find  the  Senator  from  Cooke  (Senator  Davis), 
the  Senator  from  Dallas  (Senator  Gibbs),  the  Senator  from  Parker  (Senator  Shan- 
non), the  Senator  from  Eastland  (Senator  Fleming),  and  the  Senator  from  Bexar  (Sen- 
ator Houston).  In  Gainesville,  Weatherford,  Dallas,  and  San  Antonio,  where  these 
senators  live,  these  cattle  and  land  corporations  who  have  divided  up  these  54  counties 
have  their  headquarters,  and  there  many  of  the  free  grass  kings  live.  These  are  the 
champions  of  the  opposition,  who  see  nothing  wrong  in  the  unorganized  counties  ; 
these  are  the  speakers  of  the  opposition,  whose  constituents  are  those  who  hold 
the  purse  strings  for  those  14,000  ranchmen.  No  Eastern  Texas,  no  Central  Texas 
Senator  has  opposed  this  bill  in  debate.  Along  that  border  are  the  two  other 
Senators,  Senator  Matlock,  from  Montague,  who  represents  over  forty  counties  of 
the  Panhandle,  and  who  lives  not  at  the  headquarters  of  the  corporations,  but  | 
in  their  dominions.  Rising  to  the  full  height  of  a Texas  Senator,  he  sees  the  danger 
of  the  hour,  and  by  his  fearless  course  on  this  bill  gives  assurance  of  further  use- 
fulness. Further  west  is  the  Senator  from  Cameron  (Senator  Collins),  himself  the 
owner  of  a 40,000  acre  pasture,  which  has  never  been  cut,  for  he  oppresses  no 
neighbor,  and  who  favors  and  reported  this  bill.  These  two  stand  on  the  frontier 
like  rocks  in  the  ocean,  unshaken  by  the  free-grass  champions. 

The  pressure  on  these  border  Senators  in  favor  of  land  corporations  becomes  more 
apparent  when  I tell  you  that,  since  we  met  here  one  short  year  ago,  when,  on  my  mo- 
tion. we  solemnly  enacted  that  no  land  corporation  should  buy  more  than  one  school 
section  in  one  county,  the  following  charters  have  been  granted,  with  headquarters 
of  the  corporations  in  the  following  towns  in  the  districts  of  those  Senators: 


Capital  Stock.  Headquarters. 

Palo  Pinto  Merino  Co $ 100,000 Weatherford 

Mill  Iron  Cattle  Co , 1,000,000 Gainesville 

Monro  Cattle  Co 500,000 Albany 

Ohio  Wool  Growing  Co 100,000  San  Antonio 

Mexico  Cattle  Co 500,000 Colorado 

Espuela  Cattle  Co 500,000 Fort  Worth 

Llano  Live  Stock  Co 400,000 Fort  Worth 

North  Concho  Cattle  Co 300,000. Colorado 

Alamo  Cattle  Co 600,000 Fort  Worth 

Rio  Grande  Cattle  Co  250,000 Colorado 

Gainesville  Live  Stock  Publishing  Co 10,000 Gainesville 

Colorado,  Chicago  and  Texas  Land  Investment  Co. . . . 3,500,000 Gainesville 

Stone,  Cattle  and  Pasture  Co 4,000,000 Gainesville 


11 


Speech  of  Senator  Terrel^ 


Fort  Worth  Live  Stock  and  Land  Co 

Boston  and  Texas  Land  and  Loan  Co 

Texas  Land  and  Live  Stock  Co . . 

Texas  Investment  Co 

Texas  and  Montana  Cattle  Co 

Indiana  Live  Stock  Co 

Live  Stock  Protection  Association 

Gainesville  Land  and  Cattle  Co 

S,  R.  E.  Land  and  Cattle  Co 

Horse  Shoe  Cattle  Co  

West  Texas  Stock  Yard  and  Refrigerating  Co 

Fort  Worth  Stock  Yards 

Liberty  Cattle  Co .. 

St.  Louis  Cattle  Co ; 

Brazos  Cattle  Co 

Keystone  Real  Estate  Association  . 

San  Antonio  Live  Stock  and  Land  Co 

Jumbo  Cattle  Co 

Tahoka  Cattle  Co 

Texas  Real  Estate  Association 


Capital  SfocV*, 
, . 100,^0^  *. 
. . 200,bo//^ 

50,00T*i.’ 

. 100,000..* 

. . 600,000.. 

. . 500,000.. 

25,000... 


lll^dqu^iiS^s. 

Balias, 
.j^oft  Wgfrtii 
’^^att.w'Qttli. 



*.*.’.*]^allas 

Dallas 


1,000,000  Gainesville 

200.000  Fort  Worth 

100.000  Fort  Worth 

150.000  San  Antonio 

10.000  Fort  Worth 

100.000  Fort  Worth 

200.000  Colorado 

Fort  Worth 

50.000  Dallas 

200.000  Coleman 

300.000  Colorado 

200.000  Fort  Worth 

100.000  Dallas 


Scan  the  surroundings  of  those  Senators  more  closely,  and  what  more  do  you 
discern?  You  were  told  through  the  press  only  yesterday,  toat  Senator  Johnson 
was  the  only  rich  Senator,  and  all  the  rest  of  us  were  poor.  Let  us  see.  Senator 
Fleming  told  j’-ou  yesterdry  that  he  had  110,000  acres  in  pasture.  He  has  100,000 
acres  in  one  pasture  and  10,0C0  in  another.  With  such  a load  in  his  pockets,  and 
goaded  by  the  barbed  wire  of  the  situation,  it  is  no  wonder  that  he  grew  eloquent 
in  favor  of  the  wandering  herdsmen  outside  of  his  domain;  but  it  would  have  been 
wiser  if  he  had  remembered  that  the  lawless  depredations  on  school  grass,  which  he 
now  encourages,  breed  the  commune  spirit  that  will  pester  him  ht-reafter. 
The  Senator  from  Dallas  also  has  his  5000  acres  of  enclosed  pasturage,  near  Dap 
las,  and  by  a strange  coincidence  his  colleague  in  the  other  house  wants  to  limit  the 
size  of  pastures  to  just  that  amount.  The  Senator  from  Bell  has  a large  pasture, 
on  which  the  nippers  have  been  at  work,  while  the  Senator  from  Montague’s  pas 
ture  was  lately  destroyed.  Senator  Traylor,  when  we  failed  to  get  a ratic  nal  road 
law  through  the  other  house,  sold  his  large  pasture,  and  casts  his  vote  with  no 
handicap  weights.  Now,  sir,  right  here  and,  ii  this  connection  let  me  fortify,  by 
the  h'story  of  our  race,  as  it  has  passed  through  the  centuries,  the  position  that  re- 
forms and  increased  punishment  should  go  hand  in  hand.  Civilization  can  not  re- 
form by  punishment  alone  ; therefore  it  is  that  my  bill,  while  increasiiig  the  pun- 
ishment of  the  fence-cutter,  undertakes  to  punish  those  who  oppress  him,  for 
capital  has  its  duties  as  well  as  its  rights.  •«•*** 


ROMAN  PASTURES. 


Some  Senators  in  Rome  had  their  big  pasture  troubles  once,  just  as  these  Sena- 
tors have  to-day.  That  era  was  prolific  in  writers,  so  that  its  history,  told 
by  Froude,  stands  out  as  plain  in  detail  as  the  Irish  question  of  yesterday. 
In  the  early  days  of  Rome,  Spurius  Cassius  procured  a law  that  the  public  domain 
of  Italy,  usurped  by  patricians,  should  be  surrendered  to  the  State  for  necessitous 
citizens.  The  law  was  resisted  by  the  Roman  Senate,  and  became  a dead  letter.  The 
keeping  of  large  fiocks  upon  the  common  pasture  lands  in  the  Campania  excluded 


12 


Speech  of  Senator  Terrell. 


the  BmfljV/ar^aers^ffcm  them.  The  law  De^Modo  Agri  was  then  passed,  that  no  one- 
Bhan^^’.p.hSSess^  p\6xe:  than  330  acres  of  the  public  domain.  Again  the  patricians 
frkjrjphed,  aifdt«Vnthout  repealing  the  law,  it  was  disregarded;  and  Italy,  with  its 
‘’^Vstur^e,*ttt5)oSs  and  forests,  was  parceled  out  for  two  centuries  by  patrician  Sen- 
atorSk/, enfphct^t^at  law,  not  to  disturb  vested  rights,  Tiberius,  and  afterwards 
^•CaiuVGrac^hbs.lTest  their  lives.  And  then  came  upon  the  stage  a wonderful  man — 
•CtEsar^  tlife»cfe4>hew  by  marriage  of  Marius,  who  had  seen  the  rights  of  the  people 
•crpslf^(f»jinder  the  legions  of  Sulla,  and  bided  his  time.  When  he  became  Consul 
la:^£r. tracts  were  held  on  the  usual  easy  terms  by  great  landed  Senators  and 
patt-icians.  These,  Caesar,  when  Consul,  proposed  to  buy  out  and  settle  on  them 
Pompey’s  veterans,  who  had  just  driven  the  pirates  from  the  Mediterranean,  and 
could  find  no  land  on  which  to  lest.  The  public  lands  had  been  shared  conveniently 
among  the  Senators,  and  they  resisted  him.  Cato  headed  the  opposition,  while  the 
Senate  groaned  and  foamed  even  worse  than  these  border  Senators  did  yesterday. 
Csesar  then  went  before  the  Temple  of  Castor  and  proposed  his  decree  to  the 
people.  Pompey  and  Cassius  were  at  his  side.  Caesar  asked  Pompey : “{Will  you, 
Pompey,  support  the  law  if  it  be  illegally  opposed?”  He  replied:  “If  you,  Con- 
sul, and  you,  my  fellow-citizens,  ask  aid  of  me,  a poor  individual,  without  office 
and  without  authority,  who,  nevertheless,  has  dore  the  State  some  service,  I say 
that  I will  bear  the  shield  if  others  draw  the  sword.”  A hundred  thousand  throats 
applauded  the  answer;  the  law  was  enacted  by  the  people,  who  broke  the  rods  of 
the  Lictors.  and  scourged  the  Tribunes  who  had  betrayed  their  trusts.  And 
thus  were  20,000  of  Pompey’s  battered  veterans  located  on  public  lands,  in  one 
year,  over  Italy.  Thus,  concession  to  public  necessity  preserved  the  public  peace» 
and  perhaps  avoided  another  Cataline  conspiracy. 


REFORMS  IN  FRANCE  AND  ENGLAND. 


Sir,  whenever  a republic  has  gone  down,  some  land  trouble,  oppressing  the  poorer 
classes,  first  inflicted  the  wound.  Louis  of  France  and  Navarre,  in  1315  I believe 
it  was,  crystalized  his  power  by  enfranchising  the  farmers  and  lifting  burthens  from 
their  necks  in  his  celebrated  decree,  the  first  Magna  CJiarta  of  France.  Over 
five  hundred  years  afterwards  Mr.  Gladstone  found  himself  powerless,  even  with 
the  great  army  of  England  at  his  back,  to  stop  or  punish  the  fence  cutters  of  Ireland. 
That  statesman,  in  the  same  breath  which  increased  the  punishment  of  the  lawless- 
ness, coVrected  real  grivances  by  the  land  act  of  1880,  passed  to  aid  the  tenant  to  ob- 
tain an  interest  in  The  soil.  In  1769,  the  same  disturbing  forces  vexed  unhappy  Ire- 
land, when  tenants  were  evicted  in  order  to  rent  to  large  grazers  at  high  rent.  The 
White-Boys  of  that  day  destroyed  the  enclosures  built  for  the  cattle,  and  the  moon- 
lighters and  ribbon-men  over  there  only  yesterday,  follow^ed  in  their  wake, 

[Here  the  Senator  had  .«ent  up  to  be  read  by  the  clerk,  an  extract  from  a work  on 
the  Irish  Question,  showing  Mr.  Gladstone’s  policy  to  do  justice  to  the  Irish  poor, 
vfhich  we  omit.] 

Senator  Davis— Is  he  going  to  have  that  whole  book  read  ? 

The  President — The  clerk  will  read  as  desired. 

Senator  Terrell — Be  patient.  I’ll  make  you  land  corporation  and  free  grass  Sena- 
tors more  anxious  for  me  to  cease  than  this,  before  I finish. 

GOVERNOR  DOES  NOT  ASK  MORE  TROOPS. 


I call  the  attention  of  Senators  to  the  fact  that  the  Governor,  in  his  message  to  you 
of  the  eighth  of  January,  nowhere  asks  you  to  place  an  increased  military  force  at 
his  disposal.  IIow’  could  he?  for  only  a few'  days  before,  he  had  said  that  sending 
troops  to  catch  a fence  cutter  w’ould  be  like  the  king  of  France  marching  an  army 


Speech  of  Senator  Terrell. 


13 


up  a hill  only  to  march  it  down  again,  for  the  “ fence  cutter  would  be  a fool  to  stay 
until  the  soldiers  came.”  If  you  follow  him  then,  you  have  no  use  for  troops,  nor 
even  for  detectives,  who,  be  seems  to  think,  are  opposed  to  the  genius  of  our  gov- 
ernment. 

THE  governor’s  MESSAGE, 

Many  reforms  suggested  in  his  message  I approve  (if  modified);  and  the  pending 
bill  is  framed  to  meet  them.  I especially  refer  to  that  part  of  his  message  in  which  he 
says,“  I recommend  alawgiviug  a land-owner  alien  on  stock  that  may  trespass  on  lands 
with  the  knowledge  or  consent  of  the  owner,  and  against  the  will  of  the  land-owner, 
for  all  damages  done  by  said  stock,  and  value  of  grass  and  property  destroyed  by 
them.”  This,  in  plain  English  language,  seemed  to  be  recommending  a herd  law 
stricter  than  we  are  prepared  for,  and  nothing  else.  Two  days  later,  when  it  was 
manifest  that  the  stock  convention  would  pronounce  against  a herd  law,  the  Gov- 
ernor made  a speech, Jin  wuich  he  said,  “The  herd  law  has  been  referred  to  in  your 
body  as  the  herd  law  of  the  Executive,  I have  not  snggested^such  a thing.  What 
I might  conceive  to  be  right,  and  what  I referied  to  in  my  message  was,  the  driving 
of  stock  on  the  enclosed  lands  of  another.”  So,  at  last  it  is  made  plain  that  the 
Governor  has  convened  us  to  pass  a law  to  give  a land  owner  a lien  on  stock  that  are 
driven  inside  of  pasture  to  eat  grass,  with  the  knowledge  of  the  animal’s  owner. 
This  is  a revelation;  we  are  convened  to  pass  a law  to  give  a lien  to  the  pasture 
man  for  pasture  charges,  a right  which  I believe  the  common  law  has  secured  with- 
outa  statute,  time  out  of  mind,  Bu*t,  in  that  same  speech  to  the  stock  men,  he  said, 
“Protect  yourselves!  Months  ago  I said  through  the  press,  that  the  remedy  is  in 
the  hands  of  the  people.  For  this,  one  of  the  State  journals  said  that  I w^anted 
them  to  take  the  law  into  their  own  hands.  No,  sir,  but  I do  want  to  tell  these 
officials  to  do  their  whole  duty ; and  if  you  catch  a man  setting  fire  to  your  barn 
and  destroying  your  fences,  if  you  catch  him  in  the  act  and  shoot  him — well,  I 
will  make  no  pledge  as  to  what  I will  do,  if  you  will  appeal  to  me  in  the  matter.” 
What  is  this  but  a suggestion  of  executive  pardon  for  murder  ? Is  this 
your  remedy  ? Encourage  the  doctrine  that  the  fence  owner  must  make 
himself  judge,  jury  and  executioner;  let  this  doctrine  g«  forth,  and  the  prairies 
will  be  dyed  in  blood  from  Red  River  to  the  Rio  Grande.  Murder  will  provoke  or- 
ganized retaliation,  and  the  red  arm  of  butchery  will  be  doing  its  work,  instead 
of  the  peaceful  methods  of  protecting  laws.  The  genius  of  Constitutional  Liberty, 
faint  with  wandering  the  plains,  and  scorched  by  the  vertical  rays  of  anarchy, 
beheld  the  Governor  of  Texas  afar  off,  promising  her  shade  and  protection;  she 
hastened,  heated  and  fatigued,  to  his  protecting  arms;  but  when  she  heard  from 
his  lips  this  implied  promise  to  pardon  the  murderer,  she  would  not  enter  the  cir- 
cumference of  his  shade,  and  she  must  now  look  for  safety  to  the  patriotism  of  the 
people. 

LAW  NOT  SECURE  ON  PEJ<AI;TIES  ALONE. 

Social  01  der  can  no  more  repose  on  violence  and  terrorism  than  it  can  on  penal- 
ties. Laws  must  be  grounded  in  justice  to  be  respected;  and  any  remedy  which 
leaves  the  Pandora’s  box  of  free  grass  open,  will  only  increase  the  evil.  The  wan- 
dering herdsman  who  owns  much  cattle  and  no  grass,  must  cease  his  travels;  the 
pasture  man  must  also  stop  his  oppressive  ways;  and  both  individuals  and  corpora- 
tions learn,  by  paying  for  school  land  grass,  to  divide  the  burdens  of  taxation  with 
the  farmer,  or  there  can  be  no  peace  in  this  country. 

OTHER  REMEDIES  NOTICED. 

The  remedy,  sometimes  suggested,  of  giving  the  Governor  power  to  remove 


14 


Speech  of  Senator  Terrell. 


sheriffs,  is  in  open  violation  of  the  Constitution,  which  entitles  the  sheriff  to  a trial 
by  jury.  So,  also,  the  remed}^  of  making  each  county  pay  for  the  fences  destroj'ed 
is  not  only  unco-nstitutional,  but  as  some  counties,  like  Archer,  are  feuced  in  by  a 
pasture,  we  W'ould  have  the  strange  anomaly,  under  such  a rule,  of  making  the 
OAvner  of  a pasture  pay  for  the  destruction  of  his  own  fence.  Executive  appeals  to 
the  law  and  order  element  of  fence-destroying  counties  read  well,  but  they  come 
too  late.  When  the  whole  social  fabric  is  infected  with  the  malady  in  a county,  the 
sheriff  is  pow^erless,  and  grand  juries  become  a mockery;  then  the  causes  of  the 
malady  must  be  found  and  removed  in  the  same  hour  in  which  the  people  are  in- 
vited to  defend  property  rights  and  social  order. 

A little  patent  nostrum,  which  in  due  time  will  see  the  light  here  in  the  Senate 
looks  to  giving  a pasture  man  a lien  on  all  cattle  that  enter  his  farm  enclosure  after 
his  fence  is  destroyed.  That  remedy  will  deserve  a medal  of  lead,  for  again  you 
are  met  with  the  objection  that  the  owmers  of  the  trespassing  cattle  would  be  the 
numerous  under  dogs,  who  are  now  mad;  and  the  pasture  man  would  be  a bold 
fellow-  who  w-ould  impound  their  cattle. 

Now,  sir,  I have  explored  sufficiently  the  whole  cloudy  horizon,  and  again  say  to 
you  that,  plaster  and  doctor  this  disease  as  you  may,  there  w’ill  be  no  peace  in  this 
country  until  frfe  grafts  shall  cease.  He  who  looks  the  peril  in  the  eye,  and  adopts 
the  severe  remedy,  which  alone  can  cure,  is  not  an  alarmist;  and  he  only,  in  an 
hour  like  this,  is  to  be  dreaded  who  refuses  to  see  danger;  and  who,  like  the  Senator 
from  Harrison,  represents  his  constituents  by  reading  doggerel  poetry  to  the  Senate 
w hen  he  should  be  instructing  it  with  ideas. 

THE  BILL  REVIEWED. 

And  now,  for  the  proyisions  of  the  bill.  Though  a modified  herd  law  in  its 
results,  it  is  not  a herd  law  in  the  sense  that  a man  shall  keep  his  stock  on  his 
own  unenclosed  land.  Existing  habits  of  the  people  should  be  respected,  as  far  as 
possible,  by  every  law;  and  I assert  that  this  bill  is  framed  with  that  view.  Take 
an  Eastern  Texas  farmer,  who,  with  much  labor,  has  a field  m that  timber  region  of 
thirty  acres.  He  has  land  around  him,  but  covered  with  timber.  If  required  to 
keep  up  his  stock,  and  he  should  take  the  fence  from  around  his  field  to  make  a 
pasture,  the  entire  pasture  w-ould  not  sustain  one  animal.  If  he  should  attempt  to 
herd  his  small  stock  on  his  own  land,  his  family  would  starve  for  want  of  laborers 
in  the  field  while  eni’aged  in  herding.  But  in  Eastern  Texas  not  one  man  in 
tw-enty  owns  over  twenty-five  cattle;  and  one  who  does,  can  rent  all  the  open  wood- 
land for  pasture  he  needs  for  a nominal  price.  Eastern  Texas,  with  its  large  agri- 
cultural population,  wdll  not  feel  existing  conditions  disturbed  by  this  bill. 

1.  The  bill  requires  every  man  is  Texas  to  have  somewhere  in  the  county,  where 
he  turns  his  stock  loose,  ten  acres  of  unfenced  land  for  each  animal  kept  on  the  range; 
provided,  that  each  head  of  a family*  shall  be  entitled  to  turn  loose  twentj^-five  head 
exclusive  of  colts  and  calves  under  a year  old,  even  if  he  has  no  land.  It  also 
provides  that  a stock  owner,  having  sufficient  land,  shall  not  be  punished  if  his 
cattle  drift  in  winter  to  another  county,  if  he  drives  them  back  at  the  usual  time  in 
the  spring. 

2.  It  prohibits  a man  from  hereafter  fencing  in  a tract  of  land  in  the  interior  if 
his  pasture,  which  he  does  not  own,  or  from  continuing  such  a fence  if  already 
built,  unless  he  fences  in  the  small  tract  to  itself,  or  arranges  with  the  owner.  If  the 
owner  of  the  small  tract  lives  on  it,  inside  of  that  large  pasture,  the  bill  gives  him  a 
right  to  turn  loose  on  that  pasture  one  animal  for  every  ten  acres  of  ground  he 

♦Senator  Terrell  explained  that  the  amendment  he  had  ready  would  limit  the  exemption  of  twenty-fi.vo 
cattle  to  the  head  of  a family. 


Speech  of  Senator  Terrell. 


15 


owns,  and  which  is  not  enclosed  by  an  interior  fence;  and  siich  use  of  the  pasture 
discharges  the  penalty  on  the  large  pasture  man  for  its  enclosure.  It  gives  the  man 
thus  fenced  in,  if  he  occupies  his  land,  a right  of  way  over  the  lines  of  interior  sur- 
veys, and  ingress  and  egress  through  gates  to  public  roads. 

3.  It  prohibits  any  pasture  man  from  turning  stock  loose  on  the  outside  range, 
unless  he  owns  in  the  county,  outside  his  pasture,  ten  acres  for  every  animal  so 
turned  loose. 

4.  It  prohibits  every  man  who  has  defrauded  the  State  by  leasing  or  buying  a 
school  section  as  dry  land,  from  fencing  it  up,  if  it  has  permanent  water  on  it, 
which  was  not  made  by  tanks.  Under  its  provisions,  no  man  can  enclose  a school 
section,  unless  he  pays  rent  for  it,  or  owns  it. 

5.  Six  months  are  given  for  the  cattle  men  to  buy  or  lease  their  lands  and  pre- 
pare to  cease  their  depredations.  If,  for  want  of  time  to  rent  in  the  regular  way 
school  lands,  by  July  next,  and  the  stockman  is  embarassed,  all  he  has  to  do,  will  be 
to  deposit  with  the  State  Treasnrer  four  cents  per  acre,  per  annum^  for  designated 
school  lands  where  his  cattle  are  located,  which  will  relieve  him  from  punishment  un' 
til  he  can  lease  regularlarly.  To  ease  the  fears  of  those  who  say  here  that  the  bill 
will  double  the  land  values  of  the  State,  they  may  incorporate  an  amendment  which 
will  relieve  any  stockman  from  punishment  who  will  deposit  with  the  State  Treas- 
ure, for  the  benefit  of  the  owner,  four  cents  per  acre  for  railroad  or  private  land  un- 
occupied. If  it  is  worth  more,  the  owner  can  sue  him:  that  deposit  will  only  re- 
lieve him  from  the  penalty.  It  also  provides  that,  if  the  owner  of  the  land  cannot 
be  found,  or  is  a non-resident,  a like  deposit  may  be  made  with  the  State  Treasarer, 
for  the  benefit  of  the  real  owner,  either  by  the  man  who  wants  the  lease,  or  by  one 
who  has  the  land  already  enclosed,  and  that  such  deposit  will  avoid  the  penalty. 
An  amendment  is  also  ready  which  will  prohibit  a prosecution  of  one  owning  over 
twenty-five  cattle,  and  less  than  fifty,  until  ten  days  after  notice  is  given  to  comply 
with  the  law. 


WILL  ENFORCE  ITSELF  IN  ORGANIZED  COUNTIES. 

It  is  easy  to  understand  that  in  settled  counties,  the  law  will  enforce  itself.  Those 
who  secure  sufficient  pasturage  in  such  county,  will,  from  self-interest,  prosecute 
the  wandering  herdsman  who  uses  their  range  to  desolate  it,  for  all,  knowing  the 
advantage  of  not  over-stocking  the  range,  will  see  that  each  owner  has  rented 
enough  grass.  And  can  you  not  also  see  that  when  we  have  settled  the  road  prob- 
lem, this  system  will  contribute  to  the  safety  of  the  pasture  men  who  own  their 
own  land,  for  when  there  is  enough  grass  outside  for  all,  there  will  be  no  temptation 
to  destroy  and  invade  the  pasture. 

PENALTIES  OF  THE  BILL. 

For  violating  any  of  the  provisions  of  the  bill,  the  penalty  is  $500,  or  the  peniten- 
tiary for  two  years,  or  both  fine  and  penitentiary  ; and  a fine  of, one  dollar  in  addition 
for  every  head  of  cattle  unlawfully  turned  loose  over  one  hundred.  This  is  neces- 
sary to  force  individuals  and  corporations,  which  now  fatten  on  school  land  a hundred 
thousand  cattle,  to  observe  the  law.  They  can  rent  at  40  cents,  under  the  act,  enough 
grass  to  feed  a beef  a year,  and  will  not  run  the  gauntlet  for  the  penitentiary  when 
the  pocket  nerve  is  also  thus  threatened. 

SMALL  STOCKMEN  PROTECTED. 

And,  sir,  let  me  say  to  those  who  fear  that  this  measure  would  sacrifice  the  small 
ranchman,  that  an  amendment  is  already  prepared  by  me,  which  will  suffer  no 


16 


Speech  of  Senator  Terrell. 


leases  of  school  land  beyond  a limited  amount,  until  after  May  next,  and  which 
gives  preference  to  small  stockmen  who  will]  swear  that  their  cattle  are  located  in 
the  counties  where  the  land  applied  for  is  situated.  Thus  the  small  stockmen  would 
be  protected;  and  even  an  idiot  may  see  that,  to  all  classes  it  is  perfectly  just,  and 
will  not  place  the  small  herdsman  at  the  mercy  of  the  cattle  kings.  The  objection  that 
it  will  ruin  the  stock  interest,  is  too  frivolous  for  serious  answer.  Under  this  bill, 
the  raising  of  a beef  on  school  pasturage  would  cost  in  four  years  but  one  dollar  and 
sixty  cents;  but  the  policy  would  relieve  the  farming  people  of  the  State  of  a 
burthen  of  over  eleven  hundred  thousand  dollars  school  taxes.  Cattle  investments  would 
still,  as  shown  by  Senator  Chesley  yesterday,  be  the  safest  and  most  profitable  in  Texas _ 
What  more  can  be  asked?  All  the  small  stockman  has  to  do  would  be  to  go  to  the 
Treasury  and  deposit  four  cents  an  acre  for  the  school  sections  he  wants,  if  there  is 
no  time  to  lease  the  land  regularly,  and  thus  he  avoids  the  penalty.  If  the  stock  of 
other  people  in  the  county  roam  over  his  land,  he  knows  that  each  one  represents 
ten  acres  of  land  somewhere  in  the  county,  and  that  his  own  steers,  representing 
the  same  amount,  was  perhaps  grazing  somewhere  else.  The  rights  of  all  in  the  range 
are  equalized,  and  a step  will  be  taken  forward  in  the  right  direction  to  stop  strife. 
But  who  can  estimate  the  result  to  social  order,  when,  by  law,  we  have  once  forced 
these  nomadic  herdsmen  to  local  habitations  and  stopped  the  communistic  hell  which 
their  wandering  life  breeds?  No  longer  would  the  humble  uester  look  with  fear  to 
the  armed  horsemen  around  his  cabin,  or  suffer  from  their  invading  herds,  or  see  the 
grass  around  his  home  trampled  and  consumed  by  the  stock  emptied  in  summer 
from  the  enclosures  of  these  modern  kings,  only  tc  return  to  their  fat  patrician  pas- 
tures in  winter. 

It  will  be  seen  that  the  county  is  made  the  unit  of  regulation;  and  some  amend- 
ments may  be  needed  to  protect  from  prosecution  those  located  near  a county  line. 
If  other  amendments  are  needed,  supply  them,  or  furnish  the  people  a better  system, 
instead  of  attacking,  on  flimsy  pretexts,  the  one  before  you. 

UNFAIR  OPPOSITION. 

But,  to  argue  this  bill  from  the  standpoint  of  calm  reason  is  not  the  temper  of  the 
hour.  Some  mysterious  influence  has  demanded  its  sacrifice;  and  while  one  bill  after 
another  is  brought  in,  constructed  on  detached  ideas  contained  in  the  bill, 
the  measure  itself,  as  a whole,  must  be  defeated.  The  Senator  from  Harrison  serves 
his  constituents  by  praising  free  grass  in  doggerel  on  the  floor  of  the  Senate;  while 
the  Senator  from  Cook  (Senator  Davis),  with  cynical  sneer,  and  pointless  anecdotes 
about  physic,  on  which  he  seems  to  have  been  raised,  attempts  to  serve  the  cause  of 
free  grass  and  land  corporations.  That  Senator  informs  us  that  he  came  from 
Georgia.  I think  it  would  have  been  better  for  Texas  if  he  had  never  left  there, 
but  had  remained  to  help  his  father  relieve  hide-bound  horses,  which,  he  gravely  in- 
forms you,  was  once  his  employment.  He  could  have  served  civilization  and  his 
country  better  by  remaining  in  the  humble  cabin  at  the  foot  of  the  pine-clad  hills* 
drinking  from  that  copperas  spring  which  tinged  his  complexion  and  warped  his  na- 
ture. [Laughter.] 


OBJECTIONS  ANSWERED. 

But,  perhaps,  the  most  novel  objection  to  the  bill  comes  from  the  Senator  from 
Harris  (Senator  Jones).  He  imagines  that  some  poor  widow,  owning  just  twenty- 
five  cattle,  finds  herself  the  owner  of  another  calf,  dropped  the  night  before  the  law 
shall  go  into  effect,  and  gravely  asks  if  that  poor  widow  shall  go  the  penitentiary  ? 


Speech  of  Senator  Terrell. 


17 


That  poor  lady  furnished  a fruitful  theme  for  the  Senator’s  eloquence,  until  we 
could  almost  see  her  move  through  the  chamber,  meek-eyed  and  with  supplicating 
hands.  As  the  Senator  pleaded  her  cause  over  the  accidental  calf,  and  invoked  the 
shades  of  Houston  and  Rusk,  he  fairly  made  our  eagle  scream,  until  I could  almost 
see  the  Goddess  of  Freedom  bending  in  sympathy  over  the  glowing  form  of  her 
advocate,  to  clasp  to  her  bosom  her  own  dear  calf.  [Applause  and  laughter.] 

Constitutional  objections  torture  the  brain  of  another  Senator  (Senator  Houston). 
If  there  is  one  unconstitutional  provision,  I will  strike  it  from  the  bill.  There  is 
none.  Before  being  introduced,  it  was  approved  by  legal  friends  whose  names  as 
jurists  are  a tower  of  strength  in  Texas.  I never  yet  saw  that  Senator  attack  a 
measure,  that  he  was  not  influenced  by  constitutional  qualms.  It  has  become  a 
disease.  As  I listened  to  his  oracular  voice  sounding  constitutional  doubts,  I was 
reminded  of  one  Colin  DeBland,  another  constitutional  lawyer.  At  an  early  day 
in  our  history  DeBland  began  his  speech  as  follows;  ‘ ‘May  it  please  your  honor,  my 
client  is  charged  with  murder.  What  is  murder  ? Murder,  Mr.  Blackstone  says, 
‘is  the  killing  of  a reasonable  being  in  the  King’s  peace.’  Now,  read  the  constitu- 
tion of  your  country,  and  tell  me  where’s  your  King.  Thank  God,  the  constitution 
still  lives,  and  the  American  eagle  still  soars  aloft!”  Then,  stepping  backward, 
like  the  Senator  from  Bexar,  drawing  himself  to  his  full  height,  and  placing  his 
hand  on  his  receding  forehead,  he  continued,  as  he  bowed  profoundly,  “Bald!  may 
it  please  your  honor!  Bald!  not  from  age,  but  from  a knowledge  of  the  constitution!" 
[Laughter.]  That  Senator  gravely  says  in  his  minority  report  that,  “we  do  not  think 
it  advisable  to  protect  grass  on  unused  land  that  it  may  grow,  and  rot,  or  be  burned 
on  the  ground,  without  benefit  to  any  one.”  Ah,  but  it  does  not  rot!  It  fattens  the 
steer  and  clinks  in  the  purse  of  the  Chicago  corporation  stockholders  and  the  Scotch 
lord  and  banker  alike,  while  the  farmers  of  Texas  must  run  the  schools  by  direct 
taxation. 

Again  that  Senator  says  that  it  Would  double  our  taxable  value.  Well!  has  it 
come  to  this,  that  the  mission  of  statesmanship  is  to  encourage  stagnation  and  re- 
tard progress?  I thought  until  now,  that  a statesmanship,  which,  while  reducing  tax- 
ation, would  double  taxable  values,  was  to  be  desired;  and  never  heard  the 
contrary  until  told  so  by  the  constitutional  champions  of  the  opposition.  Desper- 
ate indeed,  must  be  an  opposition  when  it  is  driven  to  seek  shelter  behind  such  ar- 
guments. 

COMMISSIONEIIS  OP  PASTURAGE. 

But,  sir,  I come  to  another  feature  of  Uiis  bill,  without  which  it  would  be  useless. 
I refer  to  those  sections  which  create  a judicial  tribunal,  known  as  commissioners  of 
pasture,  with  authority  to  explore  those  fifty-four  unorganized  counties,  and  compel 
obedience  to  law;  to  enter  that  vast  domain,  now  divided  out  between  these  modern 
cattle  lords,  where  the  laws  of  Texas  have  now  as  little  force  as  in  the  plains  around 
Jerusalem,  where  Laban  and  Jacob  once  set  up  their  land  marks.  The  constitution 
permits  us  to  create  such  a court,  and  the  bill  prescribes  its  duties.  Each  commis- 
sioner is  entitled  to  a detail  of  State  troops,  to  act  as  an  armed  constabulary,  force 
under  his  orders  and  those  of  the  Governor,  when  he  enters  the  Panhandle  country- 
No  arrests  can  be  made  except  on  probable  cause,  supported  by  oath  or  affirma- 
tion or  on  view. 

Let  us  consider  the  duties  of  that  commissioner  under  this  bill.  He  is  required  to  pro- 
cure sufficient  abstracts  of  titles  and  leases,  and  of  marks  and  brands  of  record  in 
the  county  to  which  the  unorganized  county  is  attached.  Thus  provided,  he  enters 
that  vast  domain  of  luxuriant  grass,  where  nature’s  stillness  is  disturbed  only  by  the 
lowing  of  herds.  If  no  one  will  give  information  of  a violation  of  the  act,  he  sends 
off  his  escort  to  inspect  the  brands,  and  with  his  abstracts  of  deeds  and  leases  which? 
alone,  are  made  evidence,  he  determines,  on  view  of  himself  and 


18 


Speech  of  Senator  Terrell. 

his  sworn  constfibles,  if  the  owner  of  the  brands  has  enough  land  paid 
for  to  support  liis  cattle.  If  the  law  is  violated,  he  has  no  jurisdiction  finally  to 
try,  but  takes  bonds  returnable  to  such  counties  away  from  the  extreme  frontier  as 
the  law  may  fix  the  venue  in.  Here,  there  is  a means  provided  to  enfore  the  law. 
But  this  shocks  the  opposition  ; and  they  raise  a great  cry  about  the  liberties  of  the 
people  being  in  danger,  because  we  would  send  frontier  troops  up  there  to  aidtlie 
law  in  apprehending  its  violators.  Beautiful  consistency  ! This  same  stock  inter- 
est which  I would  protect  in  every  legal  right,  but  which  I seek  to  regulate,  pro- 
cured in  1876  a law  to  be  passed  for'their  protection,  and  now  on  the  statute  books, 
which  created  inspectors  of  cattle,  with  unusual  powers  to  stop  and  inspect 
herds  way  up  beyond  the  settlements  at  the  crossing  of  Red  River.  Under 
that  law  your  inspectors  can  have  a thousand  armed  constables  if  they  want  them; 
and  it  is  notorious  that  they  did  have  such  up  there.  All  right  for  them  ; but 
such  aid  to  sworn  judicial  officers,  sent  there  to  stop  all  of  them  from  plundering  at 
the  expense  of  the  school  fund,  would  be  dangerous  indeed. 

But  the  Senator  from  Eastland  fairly  fumed  with  astonishment  at  the  idea  of  re- 
quiring those  cattle  commissioners  to  obtain  copies  of  the  marks  and  brands  of  cat- 
tle, and  said  it  would  be  impracticable.  Miserable  subterfuge!  Unfortunate  mem, 
ory!  That  Senator  is  a lawyer,  and  has  been  a judge.  Let  him  just  read  Art.  4646- 
and  he  will  find  that  a law  passed  for  the  protection  of  that  wild  stock  interest,  al- 
ready requires  his  inspectors  to  procure  those  very  copies  of  cattle  marks  and  brands; 
and  if  those  inspectors  have  done  their  duty,  the  copie, s are  ready  now.  The  truth 
is,  they  see  in  this  machinery  of  commissioners  of  pasturage,  that  the  sugar  teat  of 
free  grass  is  about  to  depart  from  the  lips  of  the  cattle  barons  and  corporations,  and 
they  seize  upon  any  pretext  to  defeat  the  bill. 

Now,  I am  not  a prophet,  but  it  does  not  require  one  to  see  that  when  this  bill  is 
defeated,  some  high  sounding  lease  bill  will  take  its  place,  hut  no  tribunals  will  be 
created  to  explore  the  unorganized  counties  to  enforce  it— where  there  is  not  even  a con- 
stable or  magistrate. 

-The  Senator  from  Eastland,  standing  here  behind  the  barbed  wire  of  his  hundred 
thousand  acre  pasture,  moves  vdth  uneasy  step  in  his  assault  on  this  measure,  for 
he  knows  if  we  pass  this  bill,  it  will  make  that  pasture  safe  after  a time,  if  he  owns 
it;  but  if  he  supports  it  some  of  bis  nomadic  constituents  will  first  get  mad  and  may 
want  some  of  the  grass  inside  now.  Ah,  sir,  did  you  hear  his  confession  that  he 
fenced  in  a man  who  owned  640  acres,  and  suffered  that  man  to  turn  loose  two  thou- 
sand cattle  in  his  pasture?  The  dread  of  the*nippers  at  his  wire  is  before  him;  the 
shadow  of  the  midnight  rider  is  over  him,  and  if  that  inside  nester  should  turn 
loose  5000  cattle  in  his  pasture,  he  would  not  complain. 

DETECTIVICS. 

The  objection  that  these  commissioners  would  go  as  detectives  into  the  Panhandle 
seems  to  me  to  be  frivolous.  What  is  your  grand  jury  but  a detective  tribunal  to  ex- 
pose crime?  Here  is  a judicial  commissioner  with  his  constables,  and  I would 
make  him  a court  to  enforce  the  laws  of  Texas,  on  vieiv,  at  the  head  of  the  Pecos,  or 
wherever  he  rests  by  a water  hole  among  the  sand  hills.  All  this  apprehension  about 
detectives  seems  to  me  to  be  out  of  place.  When  Ham  and  Tullis,  the  Texas  for- 
gers, were  shadowing  your  titles,  your  Legislature  employed  Capt,  Tom  Sneed  of 
my  town,  (to  whom  Texas  this  day  owes  as  large  a debt  of  gratitude  as  to  any  living 
man),  to  prosecute  them.  IMoney  was  placed  at  his  disposal  to  employ  detectives  and 
experts  in  handwriting.  They  wrought  painfully  and  in  si’ence,  until  the  peniten- 
tiary received  its  grist  of  gentlemen  land  forgers,  who  had  shadowed  titles  to  a mil- 
lion of  acres  of  land.  There  is  not  a room  in  the  Treasury  department  or  in  any  other 
department  without  detectives;  there  is  not  a postoffice  in  America  that  is  not  visited 
by  them,  or  a national  bank  or  a railway  operated  without  their  visitations;  not  a ves- 


Speech  of  Senator  Terrell. 


19 


sel  plowsthe  ocean  without  one  on  board ; and  there  is  no  government  or  city  on  earth 
that  can  protect  property  and  punish  crime  without  their  services.  Why,  sir,  we  all 
remember  when  Sam  Bass  and  John  Wesley  Hardin,  with  their  gangs,  were  a terror 
in  the  land.  Hardin  was  tracked  and  caught  in  another  State  by  a member  of  the 
frontier  battalion  in  disguise,  while  Hubbard  and  his  Adjutant-General  kept  a de- 
tective force  actively  in  search  of  Sam  Bass.  But  these  commissioners  would  go  in 
daylight,  armed  with  law,  and  acting  under  its  limitations.  Ah,  sir,  since  the  days 
when  Coke,  Hubbard  and  Roberts  freely  used  detectives  to  stop  the  wanton  perse- 
cution of  sheepmen,  times  have  changed.  As  the  social  disorder  increases,  the 
means  to  check  it  diminish,  until  now^  not  a frontier  ranger  can  move  to  protect 
property  for  fear  he  would  move,  like  the  King  of  France,  “first  up  the  hill  and 
then  down  again,”  nor  can  a detective  be  sent  to  bring  the  criminal  to  light. 
Let  me  here  predict,  that  nearly  every  feature  of  this  bill,  if  it  is  defeated  now 
will  be  incorporated  in  other  measures,  except  the  sending  of  officers  and  a physica^ 
force  into  the  unorganized  counties,  without  which  all  your  remedies  will  be  de- 
ceptive, and  will  weigh  no  more  than  “the  wafted  dust  on  the  balances.”  Free 
grass  for  wandering  herdsmen  and  lawless  cattle  corporations  beyond  organized 
counties,  will  never  cease  until  you  create  new  judicial  and  executive  machinery  to 
make  it  cease. 

VENUE. 

But  I am  told  you  cannot,  and  ought  not,  to  fix^venue  away  from  the  frontier  dis- 
tricts; but  that  the  man  should  be  tried  at  home,  and  this,  too,  by  lawyers.  The 
Constitution  invests  the  power  in  the  judiciary  alone  to  change  venue,  but  the  legis. 
lative  department  acts  without  limit  when  it  fixes  venue.  Go  to  your  reports  and 
see  where,  in  the  Slate  Shanks,  the  forgery  was  committed  in  Caddo  Parish^ 
Louisiana,  and  the  defendant  was  never  in  Austin  ; and  yet  the  law  fixing  the  venue 
in  Austin  was  held  constitutional.  Austin  does  not  covet  jurisdiction;  my  people 
have  been  taxed  long  enough  for  State  legislation;  but  fix  the  venue  at  least  where 
law  can  be  enforced. 

rOLICY  OP  PLENTY. 

But,  Mr.  Chairman,  it  is  objected  that  I would  visit  too  heavy  a penalty  on  the 
man  who  turns  his  cattle  out  to  graze  who  owns  no  grass  outside  of  his  pasture, 
and  that  my  penalty  is  too  heavy  on  him,  who,  without  authority,  fences  in  and  uses 
the  grass  of  school  children  and  other  people;  and  also  on  him  who  refuses  to  give 
the  nester,  who  owns  lands  inside  of  a big  pasture,  a way  out  of  it.  That  may  be; 
but  is  it  not  wisdom  to  be  more  than  just  to  those  who  feel  themselves  oppressed 
by  corporations  and  capital,  and  need  the  protecting  arm  of  the  State?  Beware! 
first  be  just  to  him  who  complains  of  oppression  before  you  strike  him, 
and  then  when  he  recognizes  your  justice  he  will  obey  the  voice  of  law. 
Should  this  turbulent  element,  which  has  arrayed  itself  against  property  and 
order,  still  defy  the  laws,  let  them  remember  that  even  if  the  executive  arm  of  the 
State  should  be  too  weak,  they  will  be  put  down  and  punished,  if  it  takes  the  united 
power  of  all  the  States  to  accomplish  it.  Let  those  who  , control  capital  also 
remember  that  their  unreasonable  demands  to  be  sustained  here  in  Texas  as  a 
favored  class  on  free  grass,  is  unjust;  that  the  duties  of  capital  are  no  less  impera- 
tive than  are  its  rights;  that  this  is  a government  of  the  people,  for  the  people,  and 
by  the  people,  and  that  the  greatest  good  to  the  greatest  number  of  them  is  the  high 
mission  of  that  government. 

In  one  breath  this  bill  is  assailed  because^  it  would  give  security  to  big  pastures 
owned  by  individuals;  and  in  the  next,  because  it  exempts  twenty-live  cattle  of  the 
poor  man. 

SECURITY  OP  TROPERTY. 

A big  pasture,  honestly  owned  by  a citizen,  should  be  always  subject  to 
the  right  to  establish  roads  through  it;  and,  after  that,  it  should  be  made  as  safe  as 


20 


Speech  oe  Senator  Terrell. 

the  humblest  cabin  in  the  land,  or  civilization  will  be  rooted  outj^y  violence.  What 
a man  gets  honestly,  whether  much  or  little,  is  his;  and  wherever  there  is  a ^tate  on 
the  earth  that  refuses  to  protect  him  in  it,  there  ought  to  be  a big  hole 
in  the  earth  there,  instead  of  that  State.  The  exemption  of  twenty- 

live  cattle  for  the  poor  man,  is  in  strict  conformity  with  the  whole 
policy  of  your  laws.  If  any  of  you  should  cut  one  tree  on  public  laud  the 
law  punishes  you  as  a criminal;  but  the  poor  man,  with  no  property  but  his  axe» 
and  no  company  but  his  wife,  may,  wherever  on  public  land  he  pitches  his  tent,  and 
desires  to  stay  as  a pre-emptor,  cut  all  the  timber  he  wants.  Texas  has  always  cared 
for  her  poor;  and  this  feature  in  the  bill  only  continues  her  policy. 

CONSISTENCY. 

I said  to  you,  in  opening  this  discussion  several  days  ago,  that  consistency  was  the 
virtue  of  fools,  and  without  regard  to  past  blunders,  we  should  bury  our  past  differ- 
ences and  unite  on  the  side  of  social  order.  For  that  1 am  arraigned,  and  am  told  of 
a territory  along  the  hue  of  the  Missouri  Pacific,  all  the  way  across  Texas,  belonging 
to  that  company.  But,  sir,  Texas  cannot  frown  on  me  and  say,  “You  helped 
do  it,”  Whatever  have  been  my  legislative  blunders,  and  they  are  many,  they  have 
never  been  on  the  side  of  land  grants  to  corporations.  Go  to  your  journals,  and  you 
will  find  that  I worked  and  voted  to  prevent  that  company  from  obtaining  these 
lands.  On  the  nineteenth  of  July,  1876,  when  that  land  reservation  of  the  Texas 
Pacific  railway  was  forfeited,  and  a relief  bill  was  before  us,  I used  this  language: 
“ Sir,  those  over  confident  of  our  future  may  smile  at  that  which  should  make  a pa- 
triot tremble.  Capital  in  this  country  is  marching  with  a rapid  step  to  power.  It 
already  shapes  the  legislation  of  National  and  State  governments.  If  threatened  by 
agrarianism,  this  capital  will  seek  security  in  the  formation  of  a strong  government 
for  the  few  at  the  expense  of  the  many.  And,  sir,  on  the  other  hand,  the  unwise  ex. 
ercise  of  power  which  capital  secures,  in  controlling  sometimes  the  press,  and  in  a 
thousand  ways  moulding  legislation  ^for  its  own  benefit,  provokes  in  its  turn,  the 
very  spirit  of  agrarianism  which  will  threaten  it.  It  seems  to  me  that  a wise  states" 
manship  would  husband  our  resources  for  the  benefit  of  the  great  body  of  the  peo- 
ple, on  whose  devotion  to  our  form  of  government  our  security  in  the  future  must 
depend.  A landed  monopoly  is  more  dangerous  to  free  government  than  a mon- 
eyed  one.  And  yet,  we  are  gravely  considering  whether  a forfeited  gift  of  twenty 
millions  of  acres  shall  be  again  bestowed  without  money  and  without  price  or  non- 
resident speculators  who  •wn  a road,  which,  if  ever  finished,  is_ destined  to  tantalize 
you  by  wheeling  the  commerce  of  the  continent  across  your  extreme  borders,  to  be 
emptied  into  the  lap  of  rival  States.  ” 

Turn  to  page  G80  of  the  Senate  Journals  of  1876,  when  the  law  granting  lands  to 
railroads  was  passed,  and  you  will  find  the  following  Senators  voted  no:  Ball,  Bias., 
singame,  Grace,  Guy,  Henry,  Piner  and  Terrell — only  seven  in  the  entire 

Senate.  Of  that  entire  Senate  I only  am  here.  Nor  are  my  views 
that  Texas  has  been  receiving  emigration  faster  than  we  could  assimilate 

them  new.  In  1877,  in  a speech  delivered  in  Georgetown,  just  after  the 

great  railroad  strike,  I said:  “ I know  these  views  do  not  harmonize  with  the  stere- 
otyped views  of  the  press,  which  too  often  represents  capital  and  grand 
enterprises,  or  of  gushing  stump  speakers;  but  after  reflection  they  will 

be  approved  by  the  calm  judgment  of  the  people.  For  I know  that  in  other  portions 
of  this  country,  the  evil  days  are  close  at  hand  when  the  experiment  of  free  govern- 
ment will  be  more  fearfully  testedj  than  ever  before,  and  it  may  be,  will  be 
pronounced  a failure.  I do  not  wish  by  forced  immigration  to  import,  in  the  shape 
of  this  turbulent  labor,  the^seeds^of  our  destruction.  I^fear,  and^surely  we  have 
reason  to  fear,  that  in  our  northern^cities^ starving  laborers  will  rise  like  a howling 
giant  in  his  strength,  and  anarchy,  butchery  or  wild  misrule  will  pave  the  way  for 


Bpeech  of  Senator  Ferrell.  21 

establishing  a strong  government,  in  the  interest  of  social  order,  at  the  expense  of 
freedom.  It  is  but  the  old^story  of  republics — freedom,  wealth,  luxury,  corruption 
anarchy,  despotism.  These  are  the  transitions  taught  by  history. 

“For  one,  I want  Texas  to  remain  what  she  now  is — the  home  of  the  farmer  and 
stock  man,  with  room  enough  for  both,  and  no  drones  in  the  hive;  no  imported 
mass  of  hungry  laborers  to  crowd  and  dissatisfy  our  laborers  already  here;  no 
tramps  to  recruit  the  ranks  of  depot  burners;  no  discontenied  iillers,  gutter-snipes  of 
the  cities,  to  corrupt  municipal  governments  with  their  votes,  and  curse  them  for 
not  providing  them  employment;  no  sqnatters  on  other  people's  land,  to  live  on 
other  people’s  stock.  From  all  these  things  we  are  nearly  free,  but  all  these  would 
be  brought  in  the  turbid  stream  of  forced  immigration,  if  peace  shall  continue, 
our  waste  places  will  be  improved  only  too  soon,  it  you  desire  a tree  [State;  for  on  1}^ 
too  close  following  the  settlement  of  all^your  vacant  lands  will  come  the  I rout  le 
between  capital  and  labor,  which  all  dense  populations  must  pass  through.” 

DeTocqueville,  the  learned  Frenchman,  said  that  our  institutions  would  change, 
and  that  government,  founded  on  popular  suftrage,  would  disappear  whenever 
the  domain  to  the  Pacific  coast  was  appropriated.  Its  appropriation  is  neaiiy 
complete.  Another  celebrated  writer,  and  an  Englishman,  said  that  free  institutions 
with  us  depended  “on  elbow  room  and  a traditional  respect  for  the  constable.”  1 he 
elbow  room  is  about  gone,  and  when  I propose  to  enforce  respect  for  the  law,  by 
sending  the  constable  to  the  plains,  by  the  side  of  the  judge,  then  our  political 
doctors  become  alarmed. 

CAPITOL  LANDS. 

But,  since  the  opposition  seem  to  desire  to  iilace  the  author  of  the  bill  on  trial, 
rather  than  the  bill  itself,  in  his  dealings  with  the  public  domain,  let  me  go  a step 
further.  In  1876  1 introduced  in  the  Senate  a bill  to  provide  for  the  issuance  and 
sale  of  certificates  for  three  millions  of  acres  of  the  public  domain  of  Texas,  to  buil.i 
a new  State  Capitol.  (Senate  Journal,  page  lOU).  My  plan  to  place  that^laud  so  that 
the  humblest  man  might  obtain  an  interest  was  rejected  by  the  Senate,  and  thus, 
powerless  to  carry  out  the  demand  of  the  constitution  to  set  that  land  aside  in  my 
way,  I was  compelled  to  adopt  the  methods  of  the  majority,  and  set  it  aside  tlimr 
way,  and  swap  it  in  one  body  for  a State  house.  For  this,  demagogues  have  hounded 
me  and  snapped  at  my  heels;  and  never  until  this  hour  have  1 deigned  to  correct 
their  slander. 

Senator  Gibbs. — Will  the  Senator  answer  a question? 

Senator  Terrell. — Certainly. 

Senator  Gibbs. — Did  you  not  vote  to  sell  land  for  fifty  cents  an  acre  to  corporations 
and  individuals  and  Capitol  syndicates? 

Senator  Terrell. — Oh,  yes;  and  if  you  had  been  listening  to  me,  you  would  have 
heard  how  I attempted  to  enforce  a dill  erent  policy,  but  was  powerless.  Side-lined, 
shackled  and  ham-strung  in  my  efforts  to  build  here  a university  for  the  education 
of  our  youth,  to  build  a new  capitol,  and  build  up  and  sustain  our  public  asylums, 
I have  stood,  while  some  of  your  predecessors  helped  shackle  me.  Still  toiling 
while  others  went  on  with  what  I thought  quackery,  1 have  done  my  best,  and 
the  man  does  not  breathe  who  can  assert  that  he  ever  heard  me  utter  one  v/ord  in  fa- 
vor of  the  policy  of  establishing  land  corporutious.  [Loud  applause.] 

You  have  hunted  me  until  the  quarry  now  stands  at  bay,  and  with  the  help  of  Him 
who  made  me,  if  strength  and  voice  permit,  1 will  this  day  finish  the  work  of  tear- 
ing the  blanket  from  the  skeleton  until  all  may  see  it.  [Applause.] 

FENCE  CUTTING  PREDICTED’. 

I challenge  any  Senator  to  deny  that  one  year  ago,  1 twice  solemnly  warned  you  in 
this  chamber,  that  if  my  efforts  to  stop  the  spread  of  land  corporations  went  still  un- 
heeded, the  men  were  then  living  wdth  grey  beards  on  their  faces  who  would  see  a 
howling  multitude  of  angry  men  tearing  down  the  fences  that  enclosed  your  un- 
rented school  lands,  and  destroying  also,  indiscriminately,  the  estates  of  individu- 


22 


Speech  of  Senator  Terrell. 

als.  Four  months  had  not  passed  until  the  nippers  were  at  work,  and  yet,  I was 
laughed  at.  I will  do  the^  Senator  from  Dallas  the  justice  to  say  that  he  then  stood 
with  me  in  committee,  with  a small  minority,  demanding  the  entire  repeal  of  land 
corporation  laws. 

When  the  Panhandle  country  was  put  on  the  market  at  fifty  cents  an  acre,  no  one 
ever  believed  it  would  sell  for  twenty-five  cents  an  acre,  and  no  one  then  dreamed 
of  what  has  since  occurred  up  there. 

CORPORATIONS. 

Sir,  I make  a broad  distinction  between  those  corporations  and  their  rights,'which 
are  needed  in  opening  up  ways  foi  quick  transportation  and  public  enterprises, 
and  those  which  enable  associated  capital  to  speculate  in  land,  the  great  source  of 
life  for  multitudes.  Texas,  by  her  policy,  compelled  even  railways  to  alienate  their 
land  ill  fifteen  years,  with  no  constitutional  provision  on  the  subject.  And  yet, 
with  a Constitution  which  prohibits  perpetuities  aud  monopolies,  we  have  gone 
blindly  on  creating  an  artificial  thing  called  a land  corporation,  which  never  dies, 
though  its  stockholders  may ; invisible,  yet  powerful,  and  dw'arfing  individual  enter- 
prise by  the  power  it  exercises.  Such  legislation  leads  to  communism  by  the 
prejudices  it  excites.  The  rich  individual  dies,  and  his  property  is  scattered  by  his 
spoiled  son — for  society  is  like  a wagon  wheel  as  it  progresses,  always  carrying  the 
mud  from  the  bottom  to  the  top,  and  always  dropping  down  that  which  has  been 
elevated.  The  children  of  the  rich  become  poor,  and  those  of  the  poor  rich.  Not 
so  with  land  corporations;  they  die  not,  neither  can  they  be  indicted,  for  they  are 
intangible,  invisible  and  soulless;  artificial  creations  of  law,  with  all  the  rights  of  a 
man,  aud  with  greater  vitality.  Aud,  sir,  here  they  are,  with  their  stockholders  in 
{Scotland,  owning  aud  fencing  in  entire  counties,  with  the  county  seat  in  the  middle 
of  their  pastures — a 2}olitical  public  cor^wration  m a free  State^  called  a county^  owned  and 
conlrolled  by  a jcrivate  corporation  ivliose  itockholders  are  subjects  of  the  British  Queen  ! 
To  this  complexion  has  it  come;  aud  now  you  have  the  last  touch  to  this  picture 
when  you  see  them  using  the  school  lauds  of  Texas  as  a pasture,  and  the  Senate 
refusing  to  place  tribunals  on  the  staked  plains  to  stop  it. 

{Senators  seem  to  forget  that  the  United  States  government  will  not  permit  even 
a corporation  for  charitable  purposes  to  own  in  any  territory  of  the  United  States 
over  fifty  thousand  dollars  worth  of  real  estate,  so  jealous  is  the  national  govern- 
ment of  landed  corporations. 

ROAD  LAW. 

The  grievance  of  a bad  road  law,  1 have  said,  must  be  provided  for  in  some  other  bill. 
So,  also,  must  the  check  on  speculative  land  corporations;  and  though  the  Governor 
does  not  seem  to  have  thought  that  a sufficient  evil  to  invite  the  Legislature  to  consider 
it,  1 will  at  the  proper  time  test  the  sense  of  the  Senate  by  a resolution  that  under 
authority  of  An.  574  of  the  Code,  the  charters  should  be  so  amended  as  to  restrict 
their  duration  to  one  year;  and  require  them  in  that  time  to  close  shop,  pay  debts 
and  divide  their  land  assests  among  the  stockholders.  Their  very  existence  is 
against  the  genius  of  the  constitution,  which  prohibits  perpetuities  aud  monopolies. 
If  the  Governor  will  not  recommend  the  reform,  or  you  will  not  adopt  it,  so  much 
the  worse  for  Texas. 

LEGISLATIVE  RORRERY. 

Right  here  1 w ill  say  I will  never  vote  to  sell  one  more  acre  of  laud  except  to  an 
actual  settler  1 have  attempted  to  show  that  we  have  on  our  northern  border,  and 
also  along  the  coast  and  in  the  west,  a pampered  industry  of  less  than  one-twentieth 
of  the  people,  who  grow  rich  under  vicious  laws  on  a gieat  trust  estate  for  the  edu- 
cation of  our  children,  while  the  toiling  masses  of  the  people  must,  by  direct  taxa- 
tion, pay  for  the  prosperity  of  the  few.  1 announce  Jiere  that  this  is  robbery;  and 
that  until  this  free  grass  is  throttled;  until  those  who  fatten  on  it  are  compelled  by 
law  to  pay  for  a local  habitation  and  fasten  themselves  to  the  grass  by  lease  or  pur- 


23 


Speech  of  Senator  Terrell. 

chase,  the  fences  will  continue  to  disappear,  and  there  will  be  no  peace.  And  I 
can  no  more  be  shaken  from  this  conviction,  grounded,  it  is,  in  reason  and  in 
truth,  than  the  wild  minds  of  the  north  can  shake  from  their  deep  foundations  the 
rock-rooted  cliffs  of  the  Colorado.  I say,  further,  that  you  might  as  well  attempt 
to  prevent  the  bursting  of  an  engine  by  sticking  straws  in  the  seams  of  the  boiler, 
or  shooting  the  engineer,  as  to  expect  to  stop  fence  cutting  by  penalties^alone.  You 
must  1 educe  the  steam,  reverse  thelever  and  pull  the  throttle.  Votes  of  confidence 
will  not  save  fences;  and  we  should  remember  that  the  commune  once  cared  as  little 
for  the  Council  of  Five  Hundred  as  it  did  for  the  Swiss  Guards  of  the  Palace,  when 
they  paid  an  unceremonious  visit  to  him,  who,  three  months  before,  they  worshiped  as 
a God.  Free  grass,  I say  for  the  twentieth  time,  is  legislative  robbery;  the  robbery 
of  patient  industry ; the  robbery  of  the  many  to  enrich  the  few.  And  I annonnee 
further,  that  it  makes  no  difference  to  me  whether  lam  robbed  by  the  partial  laws  of 
the  Federal  government,  which  shovel,  under  the  tariff,  the  wages  of  agriculture  into 
the  pockets  of  manufacturers,  or  whether  T am  plundered  of  school  taxes  to  make  a 
race  of  cattle  kings  here  in  Texas.  In  both  cases  it  is  robbery.  My  county  is 
taxed  twelve  thousand  dollars  more  for  schools  than  she  receives  back,  which  goes 
to  other  people;  every  cent  of  which  could  be  saved  and  education  made  indeed,  free 
— free,  without  taxation,  if  we  force  those  who  use  the  grass  on  school  land  to  pay 
even  half  that  it  is  tvorth.  But  you  are  gravely  asked  here,  when  did  Senator  Ter- 
rell become  a free  school  advocate?  If  I were  not  amused  by  such  stuff,  so  oft  re- 
peated, I would  tire  of  it.  This  hand  penned  the  law  under  which  every  child  in 
Texas,  attending  free  schools^  has  been  instructed  for  seven  years;  and  because  I 
could  not  walk  gravely  to  some  gimlet  hole,  to  which  I was  invited  by  a new  solon, 
and  see  through  it  the  broad  day^f  inspiration  shining  on  new  systems  of  educa- 
tion, I was  a heretic.  From  the  constituents  of  these  same  tinkcrers  with  public 
education,  we  are  now  attempting  to  rescue  the  school  lands;  and  from  (he  pro- 
tecting care  of  all  such,  may  the  good  Lord  deliver  the  children  of  Texas. 

FREE  GRASS  A CURSE. 

The  Stock  Convention,  with  singular  good  juilgment,  (if  they  were  sincere), 
declared  that  free  grass  must  cease;  the  Real  Es-tate  Convention,  meeting  here  the 
same  week,  pronounced  the  same  verdict;  and  no  sane  man  can  doubt  the  verdict  of 
the  .343,000  farmers  of  Texas,  who  toil  and  pay  taxes  to  make  grass  free  to  the 
favored  few.  And  now  remember  my  prediction:  if  you  fail  to  heed  their  interests, 
and  exalt  yourselves,  not  only  will  you  perpetuate  the  reign  of  violence,  but  you 
will  be  made  to  imitate  that  ruler  of  old,  who,  for  exalting  himself,  was  despoiled 
of  his  power  and  turned  out  on  free  grass  as  a punishment.  Free  grass  was  the 
curse  pressed  to  the  lips  of  Babylon’s  king,  and  the  same  curse  now  clings  like  the 
shirt  of  Nesus  to  Texas.  Feebly,  it  may  be,  yet  with  faith  firm  as  a rock  that  the 
bill  affords  the  surest  road  to  social  order,  I have  presented  my  views;  and  whatever 
be  the  fate  of  this  measure,  my  conscience  is  clear.  This  fearful  raid  upon  prop- 
erty rights  has  invaded  myown  district;  and  only  last  Saturday  night,  nine  miles  of 
wire  fence  around  a pasture  worth  $90,000  were  cut  here  witiiin  twenty-five  miles 
of  Austin.  Every  post  was  cut  for  nine  miles,  two  feet  above  the  ground,  and  it 
must  have  required  a force  of  fifty  men  to  do  it.  I would,  if  I had  the  power, 
enact  a law  to  place  all  such  misguided  men  in  the  cells  of  a penitentiary.  With- 
out knowing  it,  they  have  sacrificed  the  cause  of  free  government  on  the  altar  of 
anarchy,  and  must  be  made  to  learn  that  true  liberty  is  only  such  when  regulated 
by  law;.  Yes,  and  I would  place  the  stockholders  and  ranchmen  of  ever}'-  corpora- 
tion, and  the  owners  of  every  pasture,  who,  grow  rich  by  enclosing  school  grass 
without  paying  for  it,  in  the  same  penitentiary,  by  the  side  of  the  fence-cutters, 
with  striped  breeches,  to  learn  some  honest  trade,  if  they  shall  refuse  to  obey  a law 
requiring  them  to  pay  for  that  grass. 


24 


Speech  of  Senator  Terrell. 


FUTURE  OUTLOOK. 

The  prospect  is  dark,  but  ^around  the  black  cloud  I see  a silver  lining:.  Texas  is 
not  the  soil  in  which  the  loose  idea  that  land  must  be  free  like  air,  can  take  perma- 
nent root.  When  we  compare  our  condition  with  that  of  older  States,  the  warm 
blood  must  leap  with  exultation  and  hope,  over  the  future.  No  blundering:  states- 
manship or  doubting  helmsman  can  strand  us,  for  on  the  broad  .shoulders  of  the 
mighty  host  of  tillers  of  the  soil,  who,  in  the  end,  are  always  conservative,  the  ark 
of  constitutional  government  will  move  forward.  Let  us  go  again  to  figures: 

In  1880.  Pennsylvania  had  of  persons  engaged  in  professional  and  personal 

services.  446,713 

Of  those  engaged  in  professional,  manufacturing  and  mechanical  industries. 528, 277 


974,900 
201.828 

073,162 

So  she  had  673,1 62  more  persons  engaged  in  manual  labor  away  from  farms  than  she 
had  on  farms.  And  it  is  safe  to  assume  that  99  out  of  every  100  of  those  engaged  in 
mechanical,  manufacturing,  and  mining  industries,  and  those  in  professional  and 
personal  services,  were  men  on  wages,  and  without  property.  The  census  of  1870 
compared  with  this  showing  reveals  the  fact  that  the  gulf  between  riches  and  pov- 
erty, is  more  than  two  hundred  per  cent  deeper  there  now  than  in  1870. 

Massachusetts  shows  about  the  same  result.  Come  noAv  to  the  States  of  Missouri, 


Kansas  and  Texas; 

There  are  persons  engaged  in  agriculture  in  Missouri ' 355,297 

Personal  and  professional  services 148,588 

Mechanical,  manufacturing  and  mining  industries. < 100,774 — 149,362 


105,935 

So  there  were  in  Missouri  105,925  more  people  pursuing  the  industries  of  the 
farm  and  independent  in  the  enjoyment  of  its  blessings  than  there  were  of  all  other 
laboring  classes. 

In  Kansas  the  comparison  is  even  more  favorable,  for  it  shows  an  excess  of 
116,000  persons  employed  in  agriculture. 

But  see,  now,  how  our  mighty  State  moves  to  the  front,  when,  after  deducting  the 


14,031  herdsmen  and  stockraisers — 

Persons. 

We  have  engaged  in  agriculture  for  a living 344,268 

We  have  in  professional  and  personal  services 97,056 

And  in  mechanical,  manufacturing  and  mining  industries 30,346 — 127,402 

Leaving 21 6,884 


So  that  Texas  has  216,884  more  farmers  than  stockmen  and  their  hands,  laborers, 
rounders,  professional  and  mechanical  men,  all  combined. 

Can  anarchy  disturb  such  a state,  except  for  a moment?  The  cause  of  social 
or  b']-  :uiil  I'roperty  security  may,  for  an  instant,  be  cast  to  the  earth,  but  it  will  be 
raised  again  on  the  strong  arms  of  her  farmers,  who,  like  Antauis,  when  thrown  by 
Hercules,  will  only  rise  stronger  and  fresher  whenever  the}"  touch  earth’s  bosom. 
Though  organized  plunder  of  our  producing  classes  to  make  cattle  kings  may 
continue;  though  the  growlings  of  the  bottom  dog  now  may  remain  unheeded;  even 
if  every  w^re  fence  from  the  Bed  River  to  New  Mexico,  and  from  the  sand  hills  to 
the  coast  shall  go  down,  behind  this  cloud  is  the  sun  of  a mighty  future.  The  old 
ship,  with  or  without  a helmsman,  'will  right  herself,  and  Texas,  broad  breasted  and 
strong  of  limb,  will  move  forward  in  her  high  career,  securing  property  rights  and 
order,  by  enforcing  law,  and  bearing  the  blessings  of  a higher  civilization  to  mil- 
lions yet  unborn. 


In  all 

She  had  engaged  in  agriculture 


